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50+ Must Read Resources for Starting and Growing a Business

I’ve been an entrepreneur and digital marketing consultant for about eight years now, and throughout that period I’ve been meticulous on cultivating and curating the best sources on growing a business. Today, I’m opening up almost a decades worth of knowledge – broken down into the exact order of operations you need to start a business.

I’ve narrowed hundreds of articles down to a list of 100, leaving only the best of the best. I plan on keeping this resource updated, and if you spot any dead links or dated resources, please shoot us a tweet.

If this post was any help to you, I’d appreciate if you could spread the word.

Note: I’ve had this list sitting as a draft for quite some time as I wanted it perfect. But I figured I could always publish now and edit later. Please let me know if you see any errors, or if you think there should be any additions.

Getting Started

A part of becoming an entrepreneur is learning how to ignore the haters. There will be people who tell you that you can’t do it. That you should just get a job (because climbing the corporate ladder is so fun). Your environment conditions your behavior. It’s why many entrepreneurs end up moving to entrepreneurial cities like Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, etc. It’s one way good ideas are formed. It doesn’t matter where you are – this post from TheNextWeb can help show you how to stop giving a f@$% what people think.

Books to Rewire Your Brain:

1. Rework by Jason Fried – I’ve heard about this book since it was released, but I strayed away from it after reading one popular Amazon review that said it was “good advice, but not really anything new.” But I would disagree. Sure, it has some advice that has been talked about before. But it’s the perfect book to rewire someone’s brain and start thinking like a modern entrepreneur.

2. The Startup Manual by Steve Blank – Although the author states that this book is geared towards

3. Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur – A book book full of business models from startups all the way up to Google and Apple.

How I Built a Web 2.0 Site for $12,107.09. A little old, but still very relevant today. I’m a huge Guy Kawasaki fan, he’s very personable and a good public speaker – in this post he’ll give you an idea of how to start a business, and what costs are associated with it.

A Freelancers Guide to Recurring Revenue – Freelancing can be a nightmare if you don’t when the checks will be rolling in, especially true for those quitting the 9-5. Dunn explains how recurring revenue is predictable revenue and something every freelancer should be thinking about.

How to Charge What You’re Worth – This is a 90 minute interview, featuring NYTimes Best Selling Author Ramit Sethi, asking Chase Jarvis how we grew in the photography industry, an industry that’s become very crowded over the past few years. 90 minutes, but well worth it. And even though this is perfect for photographers like my buddy Chris at Orange Soda Photo, this applies to any freelancer as we’re often times tempted to work for below market rate because of increased competition.

While a business plan can be useful for internal purposes, if you’re starting a business it’s all just projections. Everything shifts as you move forward. They’re still a good idea for traditional B&M businesses, as commercial real estate agents often request your business plan, and banks will ask for the same if you want a loan.

Many entrepreneurs can’t do it alone. Some have a sharp business acumen, others are skilled programmers, and some are blessed with design brilliance – but seldom do people have all three qualities. This is something I’ve battled with, and ultimately I decided to hone in on my business acumen, while learning just enough about programming and design to be able to successfully outsource that task if needed. But it really depends on what you’re starting. Seldom do solo founders raise venture funding and thus you’ll need a team. If you’re a freelancer starting a service based business, that’s a different scenario.

Forming a company? No lawyer is better than a crappy one. I love people who spend a lot of their time providing information completely gratis, and José Ancer is one of those guys. Ancer touches on a very delicate subject, as an entrepreneur getting started most of us aren’t excited to plunk down a few thousand for company formation. And while he does not advise that you should try to form your own company. He knows there’s a good percentage of entrepreneurs who will try anyway – and this guide is very helpful for that.

I love startups who want to disrupt the legal, helping entrepreneurs save time and money. The general consensus around the startup world is that you should avoid services like LegalZoom, instead consider:

Clerky – “Clerky helps startups get legal stuff done right (and fast).” They currently specialize in incorporation, but they soon plan to expand to NDA’s, employee documents, convertible notes and more.

Lawfully – Lawfully’s goal is to create an open community for sharing legal information. Most entrepreneurs don’t want to be wrapped up in the legalese, Lawfully annotates legal documents with plain language to help entrepreneurs understand key terms, issues, etc.

Software

Wave – I’ve used both QuickBooks and Freshbooks, both of which are paid services. I’ve found Wave to be better than both – and it’s free.

HR Software from CIPHR – Scalable HR software that can take care of HR, payroll and a host of other things that could help entrepreneurs and startups save a lot of time and money.

DataMax – Offers a host of solutions for C-Store daily operations, both affordable and scalable, whether you run a single store or a nationwide franchise.

How to Get (More) Clients and/or Users

How to Get Your First 3 Paying Clients. Ramit Sethi is one of those no-nonsense guys that provide actionable advice that hasn’t been regurgitated 1000’s of times. Anyone starting their own consultancy needs to read this post.

Domain Registrar: Personally, I use GoDaddy because they’re the cheapest and I haven’t had any customer service issues with them. Many do recommend NameCheap for better service though.

Web Hosting: It’s usually good to separate your hosting from your registrar. I use multiple hosts and have had only had one issue with HostGator (though it was lengthy), so that would be my recommendation. Shared hosting should suffice, and you can always change in the future. When you get your new server, check the speed and setup Pingdom.com (it’s free) to check for downtime. If you have extended downtime I would recommend asking to be moved to another server. If they don’t comply, I’d cancel and switch.

Email: While Hostgator does provide free email hosting, as do many other hosts. I would recommend Google Apps for Business especially if you’re familiar with the Gmail interface. It’s not free anymore, but $5/mo is well worth it in my opinion. I did test Outlook as they provide free email hosting for custom domains as well, but I had a horrible experience and ended up switching to Google Apps.

Logo Design: You’re logo is the part of your brand everyone remembers. If you’re absolutely on a budget I would checkout our post on the 7 Best Business Gigs on Fiverr, one being a logo design gig. If you’re shooting for a higher quality and want to save time, checkout our guides to crowdsourcing platforms 99designs or DesignCrowd.

Two Cold-Emailed TechCrunch Pitches that Worked. Getting press usually requires prior relationships with journalists. This post shows you that isn’t always a requirement. Although this post is about a technology startup shooting for press under a major tech publication, this post is relevant for any business looking to get press.

Digital Marketing Strategy by Portent. I love in-depth guides like this, and when it’s created by a well known internet marketing agency – even better!

Startups: Don’t Outsource SEO. SEO isn’t something that you should just jump head first in. One wrong mistake and you could be de-indexed from Google. Before reading the following posts about SEO strategies, read this post and gain a better understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Link Building: The Definitive Guide. The SEO world is filled with so much regurgitated garbage, but Brian “Backlinko” Dean is a no-nonsense guy that uses data to back up his methods. If you could only read one guide on link building – let this be it.

SEO: The Advanced Guide to Link building. Backlinks are the #1 driver for SEO, and this 30,000+ word guide shows a multitude of different ways that you can build backlinks. It’s similar to the one listed above and could provide a few additional tips.

Anyone who tells you a particular channel will work 100% of the time with any business is probably lying. My view about advertising is simple – test what works. If you find a channel where you can put a $1 in and receive $10 in return – repeat it, and scale it. The following posts look into the most popular advertising channels:

Note: Google AdWords, Yahoo/Bing, and Facebook Ads often run promotions offering free ad credit, usually from $50-100, though sometimes I’ve seen $200 coupons. It’s worth Googling before you start a campaign.

Google Ads:

Facebook: With its continually improving advertising platform, it’s futile for me to post guides I’ve used in the past. Though I do feel compelled to share with you that GM says Facebook Ads don’t pay off and this video went viral illustrating Facebook Click Fraud. Though the flaw with the ladder video is that their targeting wasn’t narrow enough. When you’re targeting a smaller user base, your click throughs will be a lot more relevant.

I do use Facebook ads, both personally and for clients, but for a lot of people it won’t work. It just depends on whether or not you can reach your target market. For example, if you’re a wedding planner you can target engaged couples. If you’re a realtor, you can target people who recently moved or who are planning to move. If you’re a plumber you’re not likely to find people who need plumbing services.

Direct Mail vs Groupon – By The Numbers. Reddit is usually filled with memes and funny videos, but you can find gold if you subscribe to the right subreddits. This is a complete breakdown of advertising via Direct Mail vs Groupon which not only compares cost, profit, but also retention rate, cost to acquire customer, etc.

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. I come from a newer generation that hates to be sold, and that’s what a lot of sales books (including this one) tend to preach. But this book came as a recommendation from Noah Kagan so I had to at least check it out. If you’re a little close minded on sales, this book will open you up to a whole new world. If you only read one sales book, let this be it.

Sales Outsourcing Pros – If you or your team is struggling with sales, another good option is to outsource sales. This gives you access to an on-demand force of cost effective sales specialists that you can scale up and down as you please. Another pro to an outsourced sales force, is that instead of being restricted to the 9-5, you could have a sales force working in different time zones allowing you to hit different markets.

I will try to keep this list as updated as possible. If you have anything that you think would be a great fit, please do not spam your link in the comments below, instead send me an email at jay@launchastartup.com and I’ll check it out.

Disclosure: As per the FTC Guidelines for Bloggers, please note that some of the links on this website are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please read the full FTC Disclosure here.

Great article! For software do you have any contacts / service software you recommend? So to keep track of your contacts and handle support enquiries (i.e. run a shared mailbox)? Insightly is the closest I have found but it doesn’t handle inbound support enquiries